It is a well known fact that many people do not sleep comfortably. Hundreds of millions of sleeping pills are consumed annually. The sleeper frequently moves one part of his body or another and occasionally turns over completely. These movements usually occur about twenty to forty times during the night, being largely the attempt of the sleeper to alleviate discomfort due to prolonged pressure against sensitive parts of the body.
The object of this invention is to relieve this situation by producing a pillow which allows a person to sleep comfortably and soundly in a prone position.
A further object of this invention is to cause the sleeper to sleep quietly. There are estimated to be more than twenty million arthritics in America, most of whom cannot sleep on either side without pain developing in a shoulder, hip, knee or in the back. If one attempts to sleep on his back, he is subject to the effect of gravity, making his jaw, tongue and soft palate sag, causing him to breathe through his mouth and snore. He can, however, turn over to a prone position and sleep comfortably and quietly providing his shoulders and neck are substantially relieved of pressure, and providing there is no pressure on his eyes and nose, allowing him to breathe freely through both nostrils.
Another object is to provide a tapered pillow, for more comfort while sleeping prone, with a provision to allow the pillow to be quickly folded to substantially eliminate the taper, in case the sleeper desires to lie on his side or back.
Another object is to provide a pillowcase which is open at the head end, beyond the sleeper's head, thereby preventing contact of the cushion inside with any part of the human body. This arrangement, with the pillowcase being folded and seamless at the chest end and sewn together only along the sides, avoids discomfort which would be caused by the thicker hemmed edge bearing against the sleeper's chest if the opening of the pillowcase were at the chest end. For the same reason, the cushion covering is folded and seamless at the chest end and sewn together on the sides and at the head end.
Further objects and advantages, as well as means to achieve them, will appear in the specification hereinbelow.
When used in this application to describe the sleeping position, the term "prone" means lying with the front of the body turned towards the suporting surface and the head turned at least partially towards one side.